son, a formal
notification might be made to him, on your part, of the
impossibility of your much longer keeping the seas you are in;
and I lost no time in soliciting an interview of the Swedish
Minister for the purpose of obtaining from him the information
which you desire in your letter above mentioned.

I stated to his excellency that you were anxious to know
whether it became of importance to Sweden that the squadron
under your orders should remain in the sea in which it is any
time longer. I laid stress upon the circumstance that the only
object which you now had in remaining in the Gulf of Finland
was the defence of Sweden, and to cover the expedition in West
Bothnia; and I did not fail to remark upon the season being
advanced, and the dangers to which his Majesty's ships might be
exposed by a longer stay in the Gulf of Finland, though at the
same time I thought it advisable to dwell upon the sincere wish
which I was sure you had to do everything in your power, short
of endangering the safety of the fleet, that might be judged
desirable by the Swedish Government for the further defence of
this country.

Baron d'Engestroem asked to consult his sovereign upon the
answer to be made, and yesterday he appointed an hour in the
evening for me to wait upon him. I had previously written to
him in the morning a letter of which the enclosed is a copy,
from the warmth with which he assured me that at all events,
and under whatever stipulations, peace might be made between
Sweden and her enemies. His Majesty's ships under your command,
to whose efforts Sweden was so much indebted, should have no
reason to dread the result, or your excellency have cause to be
anxious, lest an article for the exclusion of British ships
from the Swedish ports should be suddenly enforced, even if
Sweden were finally to be under the necessity of agreeing to a
treaty containing it. I was afraid that the Swedish Minister
might labour under the mistake of imagining that a suspicion of
such a state of things being likely to take place, might
possibly be connected with your desire to withdraw from the
Gulf of Finland at the present moment, and I therefore judged
it advisable, without making an official note of it, to write
the letter, a copy of which I enclose, and